Follow the History Encyclopedia editor to appreciate Bai Juyi’s poetry!
You may not expect that such a famous poet once wrote a poem comparing himself to a white bat in a cave, and the content of the poem is even more astonishing. Unfortunately, whether in the past or present, when people mention Bai Juyi’s works, few mention this poem. In my humble opinion, it may be because this poem advocates avoiding danger and self-protection, even avoiding dark and dirty places, and its style appears slightly low. However, the poem is a good piece of poetry and worth reading carefully.
Bats in the Cave
A thousand year old rat turned white bat, a black hole hidden deep to avoid traps.
Far from harming the whole body with sincerity, what about a lifetime of darkness?
Firstly, in the first sentence of this poem, the poet mentions the transformation of white bats into mice over the course of a thousand years. The reason why he says this is actually because in past folklore, bats were all transformed from mice. It is said that because mice stole salt, they became bats, which is why some people still refer to bats as “salt bats”. It is worth mentioning that through this poem, we can learn that this folk legend had already appeared as early as the Tang Dynasty.
In this poem, the poet says that all white bats were transformed from mice thousands of years ago. Some people may wonder why poets choose to write about white bats? The reason for this is actually very simple. If you think about the poet’s surname, isn’t it Bai? So since he wants to refer to it as a bat, he simply wrote the bat as a white bat.
In the second sentence of this poem, the poet talks about the habits of bats. In fact, we all know that bats are animals that hide in caves in the mountains during the day and only come out to hunt after dark at night. The reason why they have such habits is actually to avoid being caught by humans or other animals.
So from here, we can see that this habit of bats is their survival instinct, and poets have also been inspired by their survival habits. After all, their career was also very difficult. If they want to preserve themselves, then the habits of bats are actually worth learning from.
In the last two lines of the poem, the poet expresses his feelings and insights. In the poet’s mind, the habits of bats are very intelligent. They stay away from harm to protect themselves. Even if they live in darkness all their lives, what can they do? When we read this poem, we feel that the poet’s situation at that time was actually very similar to the life of bats. If the poet could really survive like a bat, then he must also be worry free.
However, the failure of this poem actually lies here. Although the living habits of bats are very similar to their current situation, bats have a poor image and people do not have a good impression of them. However, the poet chooses to describe himself as this animal, which inevitably affects the beauty of the entire poem. What do you think?
